Tim Ambler (1937-2024)

We are sad to report the death of our friend and author Tim Ambler. 

With us he published a number of reports and articles on regulation and deregulation, including Deregulation: Road Map to Reform (2005), Deregulation or Déjà vu? (2007), Reforming the Regulators (2008), The Financial Crisis: Is Regulation Cure or Cause (2008), Financial Regulation (2009) and Regulatory Myopia (2009). 

He became Senior Fellow of the Adam Smith Institute and was the author of our major study on reducing the bureaucracy, Shrinking Whitehall (2022). He was a frequent contributor to the Adam Smith blog and gave evidence on our behalf to parliamentary committees.

Tim was in business for thirty years, specialising in finance and marketing. As marketing director of International Distillers, he was the brains behind the success of Bailey’s Irish Cream, and also marketed Smirnoff vodka and Croft sherry. Later he became Senior Fellow in marketing at London Business School, writing important books and articles on marketing effectiveness. Marketing cited him as one of the hundred most effective figures in the marketing sector, and the Chartered Institute of Marketing named him as one of the fifty top marketing experts worldwide.

A larger than life man of many talents, after retirement Tim composed church music, which has been performed at many venues including Westminster Cathedral. At the other end of Victoria Street, he will be remembered for the caustic wit he directed at (most) politicians and bureaucrats. His no-nonsense approach to public policy will be missed.

Tim Ambler, 1937-2024